Interests are in power systems, control systems, complex networks and stability analysis. Current work is now mainly on control and planning of future energy networks and some basic stability and control questions for dynamic networks.

Professor David Hill joined the staff of The University of Hong Kong in 2013, but has been continuously associated with Hong Kong universities since 2001 when he was a visiting Professor at City University. He directs the Centre for Electrical Energy Systems, which was established by Professor Felix Wu. Prior to joining HKU, he held the Ausgrid Chair of Electrical Engineering and an Australian Research Council Professorial Fellowship in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering at The University of Sydney, Australia. He was also Director of the Centre for Future Energy Networks (CFEN). From 2012, he held a visiting Chair Professorship under the Distinguished Scholars Scheme at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

At Sydney University, he continues to collaborate with researchers in CFEN on projects in the CSIRO University Cluster on Future Grid, which he played a leading role in establishing. During 2005-2010, he was an ARC Federation Fellow at the Australian National University (only 25 awarded internationally per year for all areas) and, from 2006, also a Theme Leader (Complex Networks) and Deputy Director in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems. Since 1994, he has held various positions at the University of Sydney, Australia, including the Chair of Electrical Engineering until 2002 and Head of School 1996-1999, returning to a full-time Chair in 2010. During 2001-2004, he was Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Electronic Engineering at City University of Hong Kong. He has also held academic and substantial visiting positions at the universities of Melbourne, California (Berkeley), Newcastle (Australia), Lund (Sweden) and Munich (TUM). He has numerous international professional involvements, mainly with IEEE and IFAC as well as independent conferences and workshops including PSCC, IREP and IWCSN. During 2010-11, he chaired the Australian National Smart Grid Forum.

In Hong Kong, he has served on the Panel for Electrical and Electronic Engineering in the University Grants Committee Research Assessment Exercise for 1999 and again for RAE 2014. During 2005-2009, he held review and advisory roles for the Department of Electronic and Information Engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He has been connected to HKU EEE directly and indirectly for many years. He did postdoctoral research in Professor Felix Wu’s group at UC Berkeley. He has visited HKU many times. On one occasion, he was invited by then head CC Chan after they worked together on an RAE Panel. While at CityU, he collaborated with Professors Ron Hui and Felix Wu in an RGC CAG Research Project: An Investigation into Use of Modern Power Electronics technology for Improving Power Quality and Stability in Power systems. He has many colleagues in broader China and currently holds honorary professorships at City University of Hong Kong, South China University of Technology, Wuhan University, and Northeastern University, China.

In the last two years, he has been invited to speak at several panels and workshops, including at the USA Los Alamos National Laboratory and the IEEE PES General Meeting, and to give keynote addresses, including at SmartGridComm 2012 and IPEC 2012, on aspects of smarter grids and future grids.